Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
It was Tate and another teacher, and they said goodbye to each other before Tate jogged over with his arms full of crap. I leaned across the seat and pushed his door open.
“Do you need help, baby?”
“No, it’s fine.” He grinned, a bit out of breath, and dumped stacks of…I had no clue. Papers, drawings? A box of something. Two big pencil cases in which I knew he stored markers and crayons. And some binders. Everything was piled haphazardly on the floor of the passenger’s seat.
I smiled when I noticed he had a little bit of glitter on his cheek and neck. “Craft projects today? You sparkle.”
He chuckled and jumped in, sliding onto the middle seat. “Halloween preparations. The students are so fucking cute—we’ve been singing, dancing, and decorating the cafeteria all day.”
He’d had a fantastic day, in other words. I was happy with my job; I got to troubleshoot mechanical systems and put my background from the Navy to good use. I also had completely dead hours here and there, like the other day when I had to wait two hours outside of Dulles for another company to bring by the parts needed for a maintenance check on the airport’s moving walkways. During which I just drank coffee and read a book. Zero complaints from me. But Tate…? He was so passionate about his students. He became invested in their lives, in their progress, and in their futures. Just like he continued to be there for his younger sister, who’d been born blind, he followed alongside his students’ journeys.
It was no wonder he wanted children of his own. He was born to be a dad.
As I backed out of the parking lot, I figured it was a good opportunity to let him know I hadn’t forgotten that desire of his.
“I guess I don’t have to worry about our kid growing up in a glitter-free zone when the day comes.”
He did a double take at me. I grinned faintly and stopped at a red light.
Then I grabbed his hand. “I didn’t see my future before, Tate. I couldn’t imagine bringing a kid into a life without dreams and ambitions. That’s why I told you family life wasn’t anything for me.” I gave his hand a squeeze before I had to let go as the light turned green again. “It’s different now.”
He didn’t respond at first—verbally anyway. Instead, he hugged my bicep and buried his face against my shoulder. And it made me feel bad. It hadn’t been my intention to save this moment for later, but maybe I should’ve told him sooner. It just hadn’t crossed my mind until today.
“I’m sorry I didn’t think of it before.”
He shook his head and sniffled. “I was gonna bring it up eventually, but I’ve been prepared to let that go if it meant I had my future with you.”
Christ. My heart took a hit at that. He was sure as fuck not gonna let that go. It’d be a complete waste of an amazing parent.
“I love you.” He kissed my shoulder and discreetly wiped at his cheek. “You just made my day. Or my year. Fuck.”
Aw, hell. “Come here.” With a long stretch of road ahead of us, I could hug him to me and kiss the side of his head. “We’ll find a runt to adopt.”
He exhaled a laugh. “Or we go with surrogacy? It’s possible I’ve fantasized about a child with your genes.”
I grinned. Of course his mind was already racing. I should’ve known.
“We have time to fight about that later.”
He smirked and popped a kiss to my chin. “I’m looking forward to it.”
To be honest, so was I.
I cooked that evening, while Tate worked at the kitchen bar. The surface was flooded with papers from school, his planner, and his work laptop. He was sexy as hell when he was in his element. Focused. Wearing reading glasses. He and a coworker were comparing notes, he’d told me. They were religious about documenting the progress and setbacks of every student, and I assumed it was a lot of work, considering they had children with many types of disabilities, from autism and Down syndrome to cerebral palsy and deafness.
I poured him a glass of wine, and he sent me a quick smile in thanks.
“You haven’t mentioned Lily in a while.” I threw that out there as I dumped two cups of wine into the pot on the stove.
Tate hummed. “She’s been with Tiana all week. She’s struggling with the divorce.”
I winced. Fuck. Here I was, wanting to drag Franklin over for a humiliation scene…meanwhile, he was undoubtedly balls deep in worry for his little girl.
“She’s autistic, right?” I knew those kids struggled a lot more with change.
“Yeah—and hard of hearing. I think she has around twenty percent hearing in her left ear, but the other requires an aid.”